8. Jer. Shebh. 35 b, last lines.
7. Shebh. iv. 7.
9. St. Luke xiii. 6-9.
10. Comp. St. John xi. 35-44.
With St. Matthew, who, for the sake of continuity, relates this incident after the events of
that day (the Monday) and immediately before those of the next,11 we anticipate what
was only witnessed on the morrow.12 As St. Matthew has it: on Christ's Word the fig-tree
immediately withered away. But according to the more detailed account of St. Mark, it
was only next morning, when t hey again passed by, that they noticed the fig-tree had
withered from its very roots. The spectacle attracted their attention, and vividly recalled
the Words of Christ, to which, on the previous day, they had, perhaps, scarcely attached
sufficient importance. And it was the suddenness and completeness of the judgment
that had been denounced, which now struck Peter, rather than its symbolic meaning. It
was rather the Miracle than its moral and spiritual import - the storm and earthquake
rather than the still small Voice - which impressed the disciples. Besides, the words of
Peter are at least capable of this interpretation, that the fig-tree had withered in
consequence of, rather than by the Word of Christ. But He ever leads His own from
mere wonderment at the Miraculous up to that which is higher.13 His answer now
combined all that they needed to learn. It pointed to the typical lesson of what had taken
place: the need of realising, simple faith, the absence of which was the cause of Israel's
leafy barrenness , and which, if present and active, could accomplish all, however
impossible it might seem by outward means.14 And yet it was only to 'have faith in God;'
such faith as becomes those who know God; a faith in God, which seeks not and has
not its foundation in anything outward, but rests on Him alone. To one who 'shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass, it shall be to
him.'15 And this general principle of the Kingdom, which to the devout and reverent
believer needs ne ither explanation nor limitation, received its further application,
specially to the Apostles in their coming need: 'Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever
things, praying, ye ask for, believe that ye have received them [not, in the counsel of
God,16 but act ually, in answer to the prayer of faith], and it shall be to you.'
13. Bengel.
11. St. Matt. xxi. 18. 22.
12. St. Mark xi. 20.
14. We remind the reader, that the expression 'rooting up mountains' is in common
Rabbinic use as a hyperbole for doing the impossible or the incredible. For the former,
see Babha B. 3 b (yrw+ rq(); for the latter (Myrh rqw() Ber. 64 a; Sanh. 24 a; Horay. 14 a.
16. So Meyer.
15. The other words are spurious.
These two things follow: faith gives absolute power in prayer, but it is also its moral
condition. None other than this is faith; and none other than faith - absolute, simple,
trustful - gives glory to God, or has the promise. This is, so to speak, the New
Testament application of the first Table of the Law, summed up in the 'Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God.' But there is yet another moral condition of prayer closely connected
with the first - a New Testament application of the second Table of the Law, summed up
in the 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' If the first moral condition was God-
ward, the second is man-ward; i f the first bound us to faith, the second binds us to